Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-03-19


and desperation it is by the want
and suffering of his wife and child
rem, moi his own. 1t is a good thing
for society that the body of labor.
ing men is not sensitive of the great
sufferings and privations of their
own, or have become hardened to
them, otherwise a general despair
would arm the populace to destruc-
ton. No country, unused to wrong
and suffering, could bear Ireland's
woes.
!. In every struggle woman suffers
most. We live in a christian COM
munity, with apparently plenty
around us, yet the dying widow and
wailing orphan will attest that their
greatest wrongs are from the christ
ian's inhnmanity to the christian
though many good deeds be done
By christian charity. Religion itself
swallows the best bite of everything
and the leavings make soul-saving
charity dish upon which even the
body of a Chinese would starve. At
the last day we look for some inter-
estlng revelations, some soul-stirring
balancesD that will open even the
eyes of Justice.
Hemmed in between three
churches, a religious house, several
parsonages, a number Of old family
mansions, and other institutions of
modern progress and civilization,
lived a poor family. The father
shaved himself on railroad repairs at
80 cents day, or when not able or
out of work logged his basket or
corner-stall from place to place in
the hope of picking up a few stray
cents. In this hard struggle for ex-
istence, who could expect him to be
mild, gentle, faultless to perfection.
Saints, il you will consult the calen-
dars, have never raised families
under such circumstances. The
mother was house slave,-washing,
baking, patching, bearing bitter
fruit of love and passion. She never
got beyond the small confines of her
prison. She wasn't fit to. She had
no church. The disgrace Of poverty
had doomed her there. The world
said: her "big husband y might work
and save his wages; her "lazy
brats " might 60 out and do some
thing; the "strong hussy" might
take in washing or sewing. God
forgive the world. The world never
passed that way, or if it did, it stop
ped not. Tt saw not the balf-fed
babe and the passion nerved wreck
drain the life-blood from that wo-
mans yeins;-it saw not the druid
gerry of mind, the fear and worry of
maternity, the anxiety for food and
clothing, the shiverlng cold within
aud without the misery and dread
for self as the life blood ebbed away,
for the husband on his downward
path, for the children, languishing
in soul and body,-the tender virgin
insulted and assailed as she gathers
the stray coal along the iron high
ways that bind continents; the
-prattling boy kicked and cuffad
among the " roughs" whose curses
aud ribaldries allure him to destruc-
ton ;-it saw and felt not all these,
or the world, cold and heartless as
it is, would not heap reproaches
upon burdened soul, if indeed
there can be soul and live.
Evening has come. Worn out
with the care and drudgery of child
rem and work, the poor woman shud-
ders at coming footsteps. Peace
and scrap made a pleasant dinner.
But alas there is no supper. Tired
and hungry, quarrelsome and de-
spondent, what of the night? A
few carefully put away pennies are
quickly hunted up in the hope of
having just a bite of good meat.
There is plenty of tough, grizzly
stuff. "There hangs piece; please
cut me a little offo that Z" That's
engaged. the--always get that -
Take what you get; drink in the
curses of an angered husband once
more; let the children chew over
again the leavings of discomfort and
disappointment; trust, poor soul,
to the tender consolation of tears
and the strengthening influences OF
agonlzing sleep for yonr own susten-
ance! There viii come time and
place when you shall be filed with
the fullness OF milk and honey
when the VOWS of the mock poverty
of comfortable beds and full tables
shall burst in shame before the true
poverty that filed the cup full to
Christ; when the blind obedi
ence" without commands shall envy
thy submission unto death and i'm,
mortality; when the, sweet scented
flowers of self-imposed chastity shall
wither in the odor of decomposi